Again, we find in The Organon, Vol. II. pp. 341-342, two interesting cases by Dr. Constantine Lippe, of New York :.
Patient, 20 years of age, contracted syphilis. First cauterized chancre. At time of reporting penis was enormously swollen, and a chancre on the glans. No pain. Gave Cinnab. 200. Patient reported three days later, at which time swelling of penis had not diminished, and chancre was like a cauliflower excrescence, over half an inch in diameter; it was red, smooth and glistening.
No pain at all. Gave Lac-can 30, a powder every four hours. In a week there appeared two more small chancres, deep, sharp edges, clean, and with same shining appearance. Lac- can. CM (Fincke) one dose was given, and in ten days there was nothing to be seen but a small scar.
Another patient, aged 50, had had syphilis 25 years before, stating that he first discovered a small sore at entrance of urethra and went to a doctor; for two months he kept getting worse until, at time of reporting to Doctor Lippe, the prepuce was involved for about an eighth of an inch, and the parts of the glans penis around the urethra were an open ulcer exhaling the most fetid smell, with most excruciating pain; haemorrhages at ten every evening and during the day when removing dressing; had constant desire to urinate, accompanied with intense pain; had not slept for fortnight.
Found on washing off part of the dressing that red, glistening appearance, and Lac-can 30 was given in water, a dose every three hours, with immediate benefit. Lac-can, in different potencies, was the only remedy used in this case, except one dose of Ledum for syphilitic rheumatism of the right foot; the pains always shot up from the foot to the knee, never downwards. In two weeks the chancre had completely healed. The red, glistening appearance is characteristic of Lac Caninum in any ulceration.
THERAPEUTICS.
The indications for some of the outstanding homoeopathic remedies are :.
Arsenicum : Used in crude form by the regular school as the arsphenamines, is indicated in homoeopathic prescribing mostly in the late stage of syphilis when there is great emaciation and debility; dry, scaly eruptions; gangrene; patient restless, anxious, apprehensive; prefers cold foods; is aggravated at night, especially midnight.
Asafoetida : Tertiary syphilis of long bones, especially after the abuse of mercury; gummatous deposits; jerking, drawing in the limbs, worse at night; ulcers of the skin with thin, fetid ichorus discharge; sensitive to touch.
Aurum Metallicum : After abuse of mercury where it is invaluable in mercurial syphilitic patients, especially bones of the nose and flat bones; necrosis, especially of the nasal palatine, mastoid and ossicular bones, characterized by ozaena; pains are boring, aggravated at night; very sensitive to touch.
Carbo Animalis: Copper colored eruption, especially on the face; adenopathy in various parts of the body, the glands being indurated. Cyanosis of hands and feet.
Carbo Veg: Putrid ulcers; bleed easily; burn; copper colored; great debility.
Hepar Sulph; Especially after abuse of arsenic or mercury Ulcers extremely sensitive to touch; pains worse at night and from pressure.
Kali Bichromicum: Syphilitic ulceration of the facies, copper red in color; ulcers have the appearance of being punched out, scaly patches on the tongue; sticky, stringy mucus coughed up with great difficulty; foul caries of the bones of the nose; syphilitic laryngitis; hoarse, barking cough; nodes under the scalp. (Guntz of Berlin has reported wonderful cures with this remedy.).
Mezereum: Arsenic or mercurial syphilis, affecting periosteum; intense burning pains in bones, worse at night; exostosis; ozaena; throat sore; facies dark red; burning sensation and rawness extending into the pharynx.
Nitric Acid: After abuse of arsenic or mercury in syphilitics; probably of little value in syphilitics where mercury or arsenic have not been abused; secondary syphilides, especially of the face; ulcers are gray in color; with diverted edges and bleed readily; offensive, acrid; splinterlike pains; bleeding fissures in corners of mouth; fetid breath; mucous patches covered with well marked white deposit.
Phytolacca: Primary and secondary stages; periostitis; angina; rheumatic pains, worse at night and in damp weather; nodes on tibia.
Staphysagria: Secondary syphilis; pains; swelling, even suppuration of bones and periosteum.
Stillingia: Especially long bones; worse at night; ulcers, dark red, forming crusts; cervical adenopathy.
Sulphur: Tertiary stage; copper colored spots on forehead; persistent, indurated, bulbous.
Mercurius V. and Kali Iod. are too well known to necessitate specific indications. Mercurius has been largely replaced by arsenic in the regular school treatment. Yet Mercurius under homoeopathic indications is more often curative in the primary stages than any other remedy, by virtue of its specific relation to the complaint. Most homoeopathic writers contend that a final cure will result only after a course of this metal in this form.
Kali Iod. is of greater value in the late secondary and tertiary stages; useless in the primary stage, and particularly so in the secondary, although exceptions occur. It is especially indicated in all the tertiary stages,–violent headache with hard lumps on the head; alopecia; roseola; papular and pustular eruptions on the face, scalp and back, that on healing leave a cicatrix, accompanied by ulceration of the nasal bones; ozaena with greenish yellow, exhausting discharges; ulcers eating deeply into the tissues, leaving large scars; gummatous infiltrations having no fluctuations with a doughy feeling, with throbbing, gnawing, burning, boring pains, worse at night; general adenopathy.
CONCLUSION.
In conclusion, the question uppermost is–“Does one cure syphilis ?” In homoeopathy, through proven cases, the answer is definitely “yes”, while in allopathy we have the statement of Stoken that although syphilitic patients treated by regular school medicines had had repeated examinations and tests, which were negative for years and physicians had assured them that no further treatments or tests were necessary, yet aortitis developed,–Stokes commenting that this specifically contradicts any statement that a cure had been effected.
It is interesting to note that William A. Hinton, M. D., Chief of Wassermann Laboratory, State Department of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts in an address before the Massachusetts Osteopathic Society, Boston, January 13, 1940, made a number of enlightening revelations in which he pointed out that the disease often cures itself; that it may cease to be infectious without treatment and that no test is 100 per cent specific. He said in part :.
“in a large majority of cases of acquired syphilis, eventual recovery occurs spontaneously. By this I mean that syphilis, unaided by treatment, can and often does cure itself, and in this sense is commonly a self-limited disease. This statement is revolutionary if compared with the generally held opinions of even 15 years ago when a leading American authority, Dr. John A. Stokes, said that spontaneous cure is a rare occurrence (Moore).
Bruusgaards study (published in 1929) laid the foundation for a belief in the predominance of spontaneous recovery in syphilis. Very briefly, his investigation showed that of 473 patients who had received no treatment or practically none, only about 25 per cent were significantly injured by the disease (i.e., developed cardiovascular or neurosyphilis) or killed by it; and, with the exception of approximately an additional 12 per cent who had late benign syphilis, all the others, about 63 per cent, were unharmed by the disease.
The figures would indicate that fro two-thirds to three-fourths of the infected recover without treatment. Such a conclusion has been upheld by our own observations made during a comparison of the Hinton test with the Wassermann and Kahn tests at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.”.
According to Dr. Paul A. Leary, head of the dermatology section of Mayo Hospital at Rochester, Minn., in a statement made before the Worcester (Mass.) District Dental Society in May, 1938, the Wassermann test “has not proved adequate,” and the State laws which prohibit persons with positive Wassermann tests from marrying are “doing an injustice to the individual and the community.” He also said :.
“Many persons with a positive Wassermann test year after year are no danger to their family, their children or the community, whereas many with a persistently negative reaction are menaces. Only the most careful medical study reveals these differences and no law can be written, on the basis of present medical knowledge, which would attain the goal sought.” One-third of those contracting the disease are “cured spontaneously,” often without medical aid, through defence mechanisms, according to Dr. Leary. Another third, he said, “get only a mild reaction,” and the rest “are those suffering all the horrible effects”.
Seattle.
Chairman, Bureau of Surgery